Gibbs was pacing in his kitchen when he heard Abby’s car in the driveway. His coffee mug sat on the counter forgotten. He had made the coffee to give himself something to do while he waited for her. But the way his gut was feeling, he didn’t know if he could keep the coffee down regardless. His mind was racing, dredging up every scrap of anything he had ever read about devils, demons, and vampires. The little that he remembered made him realize that he was wholly inadequate to even begin to think about helping Tony.

He felt like he had been picked up and dropped into another reality. There had been a vampire in his basement for god’s sake. In Tony’s body. And the things it had said and done. Where had that all come from?

Abby let herself in and he met her in the living room. She took one look at his ashen face and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“You’re gonna think I’m crazy, Abs. But you’ve got to trust me. Tony’s life depends on it.” He had locked his eyes with hers and when she nodded he told her the whole story.

She listened with interrupting and when he finished he could see her sitting there processing all that he had told her. He let out the breath he had been holding when she finally said, “We’re gonna need help, Gibbs. But it’s gonna get hinky and I gotta know that you’re gonna be okay with that before I contact anyone.”

“Whatever it takes, Abs. Whatever it takes.”

---------------

It had been too long since he had a body that anyone would desire. Young and handsome, Tony DiNozzo’s body was the perfect vessel, and he would enjoy it. He looked around the nightclub from the dark corner he had sequestered himself in, the tang of the red wine he sipped reminding him that he was thirsty, and not for wine.

Men, women, he could have his pick. His gaze swept over the dance floor. He eyed some of the voluptuous young ladies with their goods on display and quickly passed them over. Willing women were all too easily obtained, and they bored him. Unwilling women had a certain spice but he wasn’t in the mood to fight this evening. He wanted someone with passion, someone that would pleasure him without question. Someone he could sink and pound into as he drank his fill.

His eyes found their prize and he stood and walked to the railing separating the dance floor from the rest of the club. Tall and lean, the young man was beautiful. His tanned skin rippled over taunt muscles. His dark sandy hair and hint of a beard outlined a face with perfect features. But it was his eyes that sealed his fate. Icy blue, they reminded the thing wearing Tony’s face of Gibbs. He would take great pleasure in having this younger version of Gibbs.

The young man saw Tony staring at him and met his eyes confidently. He walked over to the railing and seductively took the wine glass out of Tony’s hand and sipped it making sure to carefully lick his bottom lip to get every drop.

The thing didn’t say a word. It just turned and walked out of the club, knowing full well that his prize was following him.

---------------

Gibbs had made record time in their drive over to Abby’s apartment. She said she needed something here to contact someone. She seemed to be particularly vague on the details. He didn’t care. He trusted her. She knew so much more about so many things than he did, it didn’t surprise him at all that she would know who to contact. Their trust was sacrosanct.

Once in her apartment, Abby immediately went to the bookshelf and picked up an object and brought it to her kitchen table. While she went to go get a candle, he got a look at what it was that she had grabbed. It was a glass box, and in it was a beautiful red rose, perfectly preserved. Actually the more he looked at it he realized that it in fact wasn’t preserved or dried. It looked like a freshly cut rose. He didn’t understand.

Abby opened the box and carefully removed a single petal. Reverently placing the rose back in the box and closing it she said in a low voice, “I’ve never done this before. But it should work.”

She lit the candle and let it settle into a steady flame before holding the petal over the flame with a pair of tweezers. There was instantly a smell of blood and decay in the room and he watched in morbid fascination as the rose petal seemed to drip blood into the flame just as it flared and burned to a crisp.

“Done.” Abby said with a little nod.

“Now what?”

“We wait. Just open your mind. I told you things might get a little hinky.”

He stood there trying to calm his breathing when suddenly the room went ice cold and he could see his breath. He looked at Abby, whose eyes were wide with shock. If he hadn’t been looking at her when he heard the whispered, “Come to me,” he would have thought she had said it. He suddenly had a flash in his mind of a figure he couldn’t quite make out standing near a familiar dock just out of the reach of the streetlight. He heard the whisper again, “Come to me.”

The room’s warmth returned a heartbeat later and Abby blew out the candle. “We have to go, Gibbs. She’s waiting.”